


Bright Shadows

by CaravalRose



Series: Will & Ren Collection [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: A/B/O, AU, Alpha Will, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Elf, Demon Deals, Demon Summoning, Demon Will, Demons, Elf Ren, M/M, Omega Ren, Protection, Protectiveness, Rituals, Summoning Circles, alpha demon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:46:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27337387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaravalRose/pseuds/CaravalRose
Summary: In a world where fantastical creatures exist, Ren is an omega elf, trying to survive in a world of alphas that want to claim him for themselves. He steals a piece of forbidden, illegal magic: A scroll with the secrets to summoning a demon. Ren uses the scroll to summon a demon for protection, desperate for safety from a society that has turned against him.He just doesn’t expect the demon that actually appears.[On hiatus for planning and writing. Not abandoned!]
Relationships: Will/Ren
Series: Will & Ren Collection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979047
Comments: 1
Kudos: 23





	Bright Shadows

“Go, go, go!” Ren urged himself, fingers stumbling on faded parchment in his haste. He couldn’t control the shaking of his hands as he unrolled the scroll, eyes landing on the dark ink inside. 

His next whispers were drowned out by a thunderous bang, then another. His front door creaked.

Ren fought to control his breathing and keep his anxiety at bay, but he couldn’t stop panicked tears from springing to his eyes with every resounding knock on his door. The tears obscured his vision of the scroll and he frantically swiped the backs of his hands across his eyes, drawing the tears out along his skin. He locked his focus back on the parchment.

The script inside was thick but old, fading where smaller lines connected the letters. Ren struggled to pull meaning from the ancient language the script was written in, costing him precious seconds that he couldn’t afford to lose. He rolled the scroll out on the floor in front of where he knelt, weighing down the edges with a small clay pot and a handful of paint brushes. He grabbed a paintbrush and dipped it into the pot, not bothering to wipe away the excess drips of black paint that came away with it. He eyed the scroll one last time before steeling himself and beginning his first brushstroke, staining his bare living room floor with charcoal lines.

The world started to fade away around him, his mind only focused now on replicating the shapes and runes in the scroll, when a new noise startled him.

“Come on, baby,” the figure behind the door drawled. His voice imitated seduction, but along the edges oozed something oily, making Ren want to gag. “Stop playing so hard to get. Let me in, and we can have a good time.”

The tears from earlier returned tenfold, refusing to be banished. With trembling legs, Ren stood and swept the paintbrush along the floor as he walked. He encompassed his living room in a broad circle, joining the line again at the end. He drew two more smaller circles inside that one. In between the circles he illustrated elaborate runes and shapes, the brush end twirling to create intricate details. Ren kept his eyes on the scroll half of the time, flitting back and forth, adamant on mimicking the drawing perfectly. When he retreated to the clay pot to re-dip the brush, he was careful to step in between the drying runes, trying not to smudge his work.

When everything in between the circles was completed to the best of his ability, Ren turned his focus to the center of the painting, where one more blank space sat, waiting to be filled. He made his way towards it and crouched down.

The brush seemed to move of its own accord, sweeping across the wooden floorboards with a mind of its own. Ren drew a five-pointed star that connected to each side of the circle. He paused, taking a breath in through his nose. There was only one step left. He leaned forward, paintbrush meeting the ground, and there—in the center, the symbol of Satan, swirling with dark promise.

It was done.

Ren released a breath and retreated from the painting, admiring it from a few feet away—before he was unpleasantly startled from his thoughts. Again.

“Little omega. Let me in.”

Ren flinched at the man’s gravelly voice, grasping his own hands tightly to steady them. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose, trying his best to clear the panic from his mind.

Ren’s silence seemed to anger the intruder further. He pummeled the door once, harshly. The door shuddered against its frame and creaked angrily. Ren flinched back from the noise and his alarmed breaths returned against his will. 

He had to do this, and he had to do it quickly.

Ren spurred into action again, rushing to pick up the few candles he had gathered and left by the couch earlier. He placed the candles around the summoning circle in five places, evenly spaced, marked by the five-pointed star he had placed in the center.

His match sparkled and scratched as it struck, springing into light. It wavered dangerously as Ren lowered it to a candle wick, threatening to disappear. The wick refused to ignite for a few seconds before smoke curled and flipped from its tip and it burst into flame. Ren repeated this four more times with the remaining candles until the living room flickered with orange light.

Ren took a step back and analyzed his work. The flowing lines of paint, the symmetry of the candles, all lit with jumping flames—

It was complete.

A relieved breath escaped Ren and he swallowed, but his relief was extinguished a second later, as fast as it had come. There was only one thing left to do. Now that he had reached the last step, Ren’s anxiety heightened, nervously spiraling down his throat. 

He returned to the scroll and knelt in front of it. With a swipe of his fingers he felt its soft fibers, the raised texture of the scribbled ink, how close it seemed to becoming dust. He narrowed his focus on the words scrawled along the right side, next to the diagram of the summoning circle. The mantra he would have to repeat.

“Come on, bitch. Just let me in and we can have a good time. You can’t ignore the alpha you belong to,” the man sneered, anger rising with every second that Ren ignored him. Soon his fury would reach its peak, and by then it might be too late. Ren didn’t have much longer.

He scanned the writing one more time, repeating it in his head, trying to perfect his pronunciation. Then he opened his mouth and spoke, shakily, reciting the mantra as well as he could. The words were guttural with violent promise and felt warped with evil in his mouth. He nearly faltered when he absorbed the reality of what he was doing, what he was saying—this was Draconic. He was speaking the language of Hell. But he couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop. This was his chance. If he didn’t do this for himself, who knew what other, worse things would befall him. He didn’t have a choice.

The alpha behind the door was still talking, his words trying their best to carve into Ren’s concentration. He spoke louder and louder, nearly shouting, demanding his attention. Ren couldn’t hear what he said over the sound of his own incantation, but he felt the effects, could nearly feel the violence and aggravation that rolled off of the words. His fear ramped up as something hit the door hard, once, twice, and the sound of splintering wood echoed throughout the apartment. His eyes became blurry with tears again and he almost stumbled on the last few words. Fear threatened to close his throat.

He finished the incantation and the silence that followed felt absolute. Ren couldn’t see the feral smile that split the face of his aggressor. 

“I’m coming.”

Ren stared blankly at the empty summoning circle. Defeat spilled into his stomach like poison. He had failed. Something had gone wrong. Maybe he hadn’t painted the runes correctly, maybe he had mispronounced, maybe the scroll was a fluke—

Another bang rattled the door from its frame and a hinge disconnected, splitting open an uneven line along the top of the door, letting in more light from the hallway. The alpha’s deranged chuckle filtered through the gap.

This was it. He was going to be taken by this alpha. He was going to be forced into a mating he didn’t want, and he wouldn’t have the power to stop it.

Ren sank into the floor and hugged his knees to his chest, burying his head in his arms. The agony of failure coursed through his veins and filled his eyes with tears. At least he had tried to save himself.

His first sob rocked his chest and thundered through the floor. The second convulsed through the floorboards and rattled the candles.

That… wasn’t right.

Ren lifted his head. He couldn’t stop the next sob from tearing through his teeth. With it, the candles extinguished. His eyes widened with surprise and he tore his arms from around his knees, scrambling to stand. He took a cautious step forward, then another. Smoke twisted from the cooling candle wicks, disappearing into a white cloud feet above.

“Have you accepted your fate yet, little omega? I’ll get to you soon.”

But Ren wasn’t listening. His attention was caught instead on the shadows of his apartment. They lengthened and twisted, creeping towards him, swirling towards the circle. After an eternity, they met, spiraling into one deeper, darker shadow. Ren couldn’t bring himself to move, too shocked by the supernatural to consider anything else. The lights in his apartment sputtered and flickered off, dousing him in blackness. 

Then—

The candle flames sprouted to life again, brighter and higher than before. Where the shows converged, floating above the Satanic symbol in the heart of the painting, something was building itself up from the floor.

Something pulled Ren closer, even against his instincts to run and hide. He took a hesitant step forward.

There, above the Satanic rune. The shadows grew and lengthened, crawling into the air, revealing something underneath them as they climbed. Ren sucked in a breath of surprise when he recognized what it was. Boots.

As the shadows ascended, they uncovered more and more.

There, the edge of dark pants. There, the bump of knees. A waistband, the beginning of a shirt, the broadening of the abdomen into a chest and shoulders, the curve of a neck—

Already the shadows had exposed a body, and already, without its head, it was taller than Ren. His mouth ran dry with anxiety.

The shadows slowed to a crawl as they revealed the sharp edge of a jawline. Full lips. A straight nose. Ren could feel time suspend as the curl of a shadow lifted and a shock of blue pierced his view. Eyes, he realized. He barely registered the shadow’s continued path, exposing thick black hair. His eyes were locked on the blue ones in front of him, and he couldn’t disconnect their shared gaze.

His attention was only pulled away when he realized that the shadows hadn’t stopped.

Ren’s eyes flickered upwards and watched as the shadows shot up suddenly from black hair. Long black horns sprouted from the figure’s temples, spiraling to the ceiling, mere centimeters from scraping across it. Ren felt his mouth drop open against his will. This… this man… 

He wasn’t a man at all, was he? The truth struck Ren like a blow. This was a demon.

A demon that he had summoned.

Ren’s head was forced backwards to take in the full sight of the demon before him. His height, his muscular width, and his biting blue eyes all battled for Ren’s attention. He opened his mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say.

The demon lifted an eyebrow and cocked his head in amusement. The tip of one of his horns grated across the ceiling, leaving a groove behind. 

“Hello.”

His voice was deep and Ren flinched back, startled. The demon merely blinked upon seeing his reaction.

“You’ve summoned me. Why?”

It took a few seconds for Ren to process the demon’s dark words. It took another few for him to find his own.

“I…” He faltered. His voice sounded weak and fearful in his own ears, and he hated it. “I heard that… that someone can make a deal with a demon.” 

“Someone can.” The demon’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “And what is it you summoned me to do for you?”

Ren had the sudden feeling that this demon didn’t like being used for deals. His fear spiked again. Before he could respond with his truth, a third voice interrupted.

“I’m growing tired out here all alone, little elf. I think it’s time I come in.

Ren had nearly forgotten that the alpha stood there behind his door, threatening merely with his presence. He blanched and took a step back, eyes flickering to the door, nearly hidden completely behind the demon’s back. The demon didn’t move but to shift his eyes, studying Ren and his reaction to the mysterious voice behind him. 

“I’m sorry,” Ren breathed, barely a whisper. “I didn’t—I didn’t mean to use you. I just wanted—”

“You wanted what?”

Ren met the demon’s eyes, cloudy with something he couldn’t place.

“I wanted…” Ren tried to fight the urge to cry again. He hated it, how easy it was for the tears to come, as much as he tried to resist them. He forced his response through gritted teeth. “I wanted someone to keep me safe.”

He couldn’t bear to look at the demon. He ducked his head with embarrassment, staring hard at the floor through watery eyes. He flinched away from the sounds still coming from the hallway.  
The silence stretched an unbearably long time.

Ren tensed. Though he wasn’t looking, he could feel the demon’s intense stare boring into him. He felt like he had been laid bare, and the demon was picking apart all of him, examining his deepest thoughts. What he saw, Ren couldn’t be sure.

It was furthest from what he expected when the demon extended his hand from his side, palm up, in Ren’s direction. Ren’s eyes widened in surprise and his head snapped back up, eyes meeting the demon’s.

“Then we have a deal.”

Ren remained rooted to the ground, immoble. Surely he didn’t mean that. This had to be some trick.

The demon could sense Ren’s hesitancy. His voice rumbled low, filling the space between them. “I feel that you’re running out of time.” That did its job. Ren’s breaths increased again, his heartbeat thundering in his chest.

“Let me help you.” The demon’s voice was softer now, quieter. “I can keep you safe. Just shake my hand.”

Ren stared down at the demon’s hand, broad and long, with angular fingers. Through the cloud of disbelief in his head came a piercing feeling, one light and surprising. Hope. 

This was what he had been hoping for, for so many years. The entire time he painted the summoning circle, lit the candles, and spoke the incantation—it was all for this, so he might reach this point. Now… now he might have it. And he hesitated.

Finally he locked eyes with the demon once more. Ren grounded himself in the demon’s blue eyes, bright with hope and promise. The promise of security. Of protection.

It was a leap of faith, one he might later regret. But it was something he had longed for until now. This opportunity… if he passed it up, would he ever get another like it?

Ren took a step forward and reached out, resting his hand in the demon’s. Their palms slid together softly. Ren’s hand trembled in the demon’s hold. He took a deep breath and felt warmth spread into his fingers. 

The demon’s eyes glowed with the promise of safety.

Locked in that moment, with their hands intertwined and eyes connected, Ren accepted the truth he now felt thrumming through his bones: this simply felt right.

“It’s a deal.”


End file.
